We’re reinventing the Brunel Museum for 2025!
The Brunel Museum has announced that it will close in September 2024 for their Brunel Museum Reinvented project, thanks to a £1.85million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project will see the site transformed to a more inclusive and accessible space to tell the fascinating stories of Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Alongside the new exhibition spaces, it will host a vibrant programme of events for families and the local community.
The museum, based in Southwark, celebrates the story of the Brunel family who are at the heart of Victorian innovation and the Industrial Revolution. It is located at the site of Marc Brunel’s ground-breaking Thames Tunnel running from Rotherhithe to Wapping. This was the first ever tunnel dug underneath a river and pioneered innovation that is still used today.
The project aims to be completed by summer 2025 in time to celebrate 200 years since work began on this ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’. It will see the Engine House and the Grade II* listed Tunnel Shaft restored to their former glory and a new gallery created. A new Welcome Pavilion will transform the visitor experience with accessible facilities, and shop, enabling more people to visit and learn about this important heritage.
A collection of over images, known as the Thames Tunnel watercolours will be on display for the first time. Produced during the construction of the Thames Tunnel, many were drawn and painted by the Brunels themselves. They offer a unique insight into its creation. Exceptional for their beauty, artistic merit and technical detail, the drawings have been described as the most important Brunel collection ever to enter the public domain. They were buried in a family album for almost 200 years but were acquired by the museum in 2017 and have been waiting to find their permanent home in the restored Engine House.
Before closure, the Museum is celebrating with a range of activities over the summer.
The community is at the heart of the project with a programme of free community events and an educational programme being developed. The already much-loved Tunnel Shaft Garden and the adjacent Piazza will be retained as an open space for community activities and will host free-entry events.